Bristol’s parks and open spaces might seem ideal to fly your new drone, but new byelaws and regulations just introduced by council chiefs have banned them from all but three areas of the city.

The City Council’s new parks regulations cover a multitude of dos and don’ts when it comes to activities in the green spaces owned and managed by the local authority.

And while barbecues (they’re banned in a couple of parks now) and picking blackberries (that’s allowed, but as long as you don’t cut the whole branch off) have attracted the most attention, a small section of the new rules looks set to restrict a huge number of people in Bristol who have drones and model aircraft from flying them at their local park.

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The rules now allow the flying of drones in designated areas in three Bristol parks – Hengrove Park in south Bristol, the Dundridge playing fields near Hanham and on the Blaise Castle Estate near Henbury.

Other sites that are already popular for drone flying, including Ashton Court, Netham Park, Troopers Hill and the Stoke Park Estate, are now out of bounds for the model aircraft. The rule also applies to council-owned open ground that isn’t a specific park, like the area at the side of the A38 at Bedminster Down.

Even in the three spots where drones are allowed, there are conditions on them – and larger drones or model aircraft are banned everywhere.

“The model aircraft must weigh 7kg or less, without its fuel,” the regulations state. “The person flying the aircraft must be a member of the British Model Flying Association and have public liability insurance.

“’Power-driven’ means driven by:

(a) the combustion of petrol vapour or other combustible substances;

(b) jet propulsion or by means of a rocket, other than by means of a small reaction motor powered by a solid fuel pellet not exceeding 2.54 centimetres in length; or

(c) one or more electric motors or by compressed gas,” the regulations state.

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Another rule governs how they are flown, with the rule stating that: “No person shall cause any power-driven model aircraft to take off or otherwise be released for flight or control the flight of such an aircraft; or land in the ground without reasonable excuse; other than in a designated area for flying model aircraft.”